New pope, but no sign of change

The devil has always loomed large as a convenient scapegoat for the hierarchy of the Roman Catholic Church, and the demon re-emerged last week when Pope Francis addressed the red-robed denizens who had elected him days before.

“Go back to your homes and continue your ministry enriched by the experience of these days,” the Pope told them. “Let us never give in to pessimism, to that bitterness that the devil offers us every day.”

A tall order, surely, as it’s not typically the devil fanning the flames of discontent within a church fighting for relevance and moral authority. While many Catholics around the world are rejoicing in the election of a humble man who rode the bus and washed the feet of the poor in his native Argentina, others say they’re too embittered to expect any real change from a hierarchy mired in the past.

Among the disenchanted, of course, are the scores of men who were victimized by priests when they were children.

“I’m not hoping for anything,” said George “Skip” Shea of Uxbridge, who was sexually abused in the 1970s. “I look at who elected the pope and think we won’t get anything different. It’s the same group of people, and they’re going to vote for people who will protect their interests and nothing more.”

Asked if he considered the new pope a holy man, Shea sighed. “I don’t even know what that means. I have a hard time thinking that any of them are.”

On the other side of the spectrum are staunch Catholics like the man who sent me an email quoting scripture and criticizing my column about the pope before I had even written it.

“I think it’s time you read your BIBLE and understand God’s law’s(sic) while you still have time,” he wrote. “If you were the sheppard(sic) of the church, we would all be going to the pit of hell.”

Well, have a nice day to you, too. But if the election of a new pope fosters contempt among the cynics and fanaticism among the fire-and-brimstone crowd, it can also serve as a call for change from the large numbers in the middle, the many Catholics who have hung in there against all the odds.

No one believes that the new pope is planning to host a gay tea dance at the Vatican anytime soon. Yet many pray for a pontiff who isn’t fixated on condemnation and contraception, who doesn’t spend his energy lecturing about the evils of homosexuality and sex outside of marriage, one who could even support a larger role for women in the church.

Could Francis be that man? We’ve heard stories of him criticizing clerics for refusing to baptize the children of single mothers. Conversely, questions remain about his role during Argentina’s Dirty War, and we’re not surprised that he fought hard as archbishop against a bill to legalize gay marriage in Argentina, calling it “a destructive attack on God’s plan.”

The bill eventually became law. And today, even as the church continues it rigid rail against gay marriage, clear majorities of Catholics support it, just as they largely ignore the church’s regressive teachings on birth control. So as society marches forward, the Vatican continues to move backward on all the issues that fracture its relationship with Catholics in the West. Activists are already calling on the new pontiff to defrock the cardinals and bishops who covered up sex abuse scandals in their dioceses, and to release all confidential records on pedophile priests.

“There will be lip service and photo ops,” predicted Shea, who said any real punishment will come from the legal system.

But many believers would like to ride the bus with their new pontiff. It’s not likely, but maybe he’ll surprise the cynics who doubt, with good reason, that the Catholic Church is capable of any meaningful reform.